Pubdate: Fri, 22 Feb 2002
Source: Student Life (MO)
Copyright: 2002 Student Life
Contact:  http://www.studlife.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1636
Author: Iqbal Akhtar

LIES, DRUGS, AND THE USA

The drug war is now, and has always been, based upon lies. Hamilton Wright 
testified before Congress several times leading up to the Harrison 
Narcotics Act of 1914, which would become the first restriction placed on 
drugs, mainly cocaine and opium, by the federal government. Oftentimes, 
Wright would tinge his testimony with racist comments such as "Cocaine is 
often the direct incentive to the crime of rape by the Negroes." The next 
"great" drug warrior after Wright was a man named Harry J. Anslinger. 
Anslinger had been employed by the federal Prohibition Unit during 
Prohibition (which worked so very well), but was transferred to the 
Narcotics Division before the repeal. By July of 1930 Anslinger was the 
head of the all new Federal Bureau of Narcotics; he would hold this 
position until 1960. When Anslinger was pressed for numbers he would simply 
make them up. Unless you can believe that he had someway of knowing that 
there were exactly 9,458 "addicts" in New York. Wright and Anslinger built 
the drug war that we know and love from the ground up on lies.

We should not fool ourselves into believing that things have changed; 
politicians still lie with every word they speak, and most of us have 
probably come to expect it. Which brings me to my real point: the ads that 
were purchased by the Office of National Drug Control Policy during the 
Superbowl are also egregious lies. I will not say that most drug 
traffickers are not unsavory and violent people, but most of them are not 
global terrorists.

Also, going back to that "Axis of Evil" from my last article, the 
terrorists our government is after are in Iraq, Iran, and North Korea (or 
possibly still lingering in Afghanistan) so I will disregard all others as 
our president so thoughtfully did. The most commonly used illicit drug in 
America is marijuana.

Almost all marijuana consumed in America is either grown here at home, in 
Mexico, or in Canada. As far as I am aware these countries are not major 
threats to us. The same story holds true for methamphetamines except that 
Canada is not a lead producer.

And when it comes to LSD, almost all of it is made right here in the good 
ol' U.S. of A. (buy American).

Ecstasy is another commonly used drug, especially among college students, 
and it is almost all manufactured in the Netherlands which is also fairly 
non-threatening. The only two other big drugs I haven't covered are cocaine 
and opium or opium-related products like heroin.

Almost all cocaine comes from the Andean region of South America, Colombia 
and Bolivia in particular. The FARC of Colombia is according to our 
government the largest terrorist group in the world, by sheer number of 
members.

Much of the money from Colombian cocaine fills the coffers of the FARC. The 
FARC is a very vicious group, but is not a plausible threat to U.S. 
security. They are a rebel army bent on overthrowing the Colombian 
government and installing a new Marxist one, and as of right now have no 
long term goals of destroying America. Finally, only opium is left. It is 
true that Afghanistan was, and still is, the leading producer of opium in 
the world, but it would be foolish to believe that the Taliban or Osama bin 
Laden had a hand in the production of this drug. It was our "ally" the 
Northern Alliance who was the primary protector of Afghani opium.

So, it turns out that if someone buys opium they're really..supporting our 
allies!? Much like the lies that the drug war was based on, this new line 
of propaganda is centered around political convenience rather than honesty.
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MAP posted-by: Ariel